Cross-report automations and photo routing
Cross-report automations let you set rules in a template that automatically copy or route photos from one report to another on the same booking. The most common use is photo routing — ensuring that photos taken during a standard home inspection automatically appear in the relevant sections of a specialty report (like a 4-Point or Wind Mitigation) attached to the same booking.
Why photo routing matters
If you are doing a combined inspection — a standard home inspection and a Wind Mitigation at the same property — you take photos of the roof, electrical panel, HVAC, and other systems once. Without photo routing, you would have to manually attach those same photos to both reports. Photo routing automates this: photos you attach in the standard report appear automatically in the corresponding specialty form.
How photo routing is configured
Photo routing is set up at the template level, not per-report. You configure which sections in a template should receive photos from which sections in another template.
Go to Templates and open the template you want to configure (typically your specialty form — 4-Point or Wind Mit).
Go to Settings → Photo Routing within the template editor.
For each section of this template, specify which section of the source template (your standard home inspection template) should feed photos into it.
Example configuration:
Wind Mit "Roof Covering" section ← Standard Report "Roofing" section photos
Wind Mit "Electrical" section ← Standard Report "Electrical" section photos
Wind Mit "HVAC" section ← Standard Report "Heating & Cooling" section photos
When routing fires
Photo routing fires automatically when both reports exist on the same booking. As photos are added to the source report (the standard home inspection), they are mirrored to the destination sections in the specialty report. The routing runs in the background — you do not have to trigger it manually.
Manual override
Photo routing copies photos but does not lock them. In the specialty report, you can remove routed photos, add different ones, or reorder them without affecting the source report. The specialty report has its own independent copy of the photos.
Other automations
Photo routing uses the attach_photo automation action. Inspector Studio's automation framework is designed to support additional action types over time. If you have a specific automation need beyond photo routing, contact support to discuss what is possible.
Was this article helpful?